srijeda, 10. kolovoza 2011.

History And Downfall Of The Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns have been in professional football since 1946. They have a long and interesting history, it all began with the All-America Football Conference, the AAFC which would later merge into the NFL.

The first coach of the Cleveland Browns was Paul Brown, but he wasn't just the coach he was also the general manager and vice president when they were part of the AAFC. Something surprising is that the team was named after him even though and maybe particularly because the name was chosen by a naming contest. As Brown was already popular in Ohio in the world of football people thought it was appropriate. Brown didn't actually want the team to be named after him, instead he wanted to call the team the Panthers but due to some trademarks he couldn't do it so he had to name the team after himself and the Cleveland Browns were born.

Because of Paul Browns connections to the football world he had all what he needed to start a good team. It worked, in 1948 his team had the season record and wasn't beaten once. The team was also very popular, even at the beginning they had some 57,000 spectators per season. This was quite the accomplishment especially if you consider that just a year before the Cleveland Rams were moved to L.A. because they were losing money and because the community didn't care for them much. After 1949 because of some problems in the AAFC the National Football League took 3 teams from the AAFC, of which the Browns were the most interesting.

Even in the NFL the Browns were a very good team, the first year in the surpasses analyst expectations. The team performed well all throughout the 50s and 60s but problems began when Paul Brown sold the team to Art Modell and started a new team which would later become the Cincinnati Bengals which resulted in the teams becoming instant rivals. The Browns continued to perform well into the early 70s, but problems started when the NFL merged with the AFL.

A lot of changes happened from the 70s and into the 80s for the Cleveland Browns. A lot of staff was changed including players and coaches but nothing seemed to help with ending the losing streak. From then on it went hill down for the Browns, in their 50 years of existence they didn't participate in the Super Bowl once.